Switched Ch 12: The Crimson Tide

Charlaine Harris owns almost everything. I own the rest.

Thank you to all of you that followed me here.  As I mentioned before, I will be posting this story for as long as I can on FF, but once it gets too hot, I’ll be posting it on my blog. I also want to let you know that I will be posting the next (and last) chapter of La Vie En Rose some time soon on my blog, so if you have been waiting for more vamp Sookie, there’s a little left in me.

padore and drkselene I loved your ideas and just had to use them in this chapter. Thanks for sharing your brains with me! 🙂

SeriousCrush, words cannot even begin to capture my gratitude for your willingness to help me. Even with a tiny baby in your arms, you work tirelessly for me. I love you forever!

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The Crimson Tide

Eric’s POV (in Sookie’s body)

Sookie ran down the hall and disappeared into her bedroom. I was tempted to follow her and show her where I put the clothes from my house, but knew that she wanted me to open the door. She was tense about Andy’s visit. Me? I was pissed. I wanted to kick him squarely in the balls for interrupting our blissful moment. What kind of business could he possibly have at this time of night?

I tugged the door open just as he was raising his fist to pound on the door again. “What do you want?” I was agitated, to say the least.

“Um…” Andy’s eyes left mine, and lingered on Sookie’s breasts.

I raised an eyebrow and repeated myself. “What do you want?”

Andy cleared his throat. “Um, sorry. Yeah, I’m here on official police business!” He pushed past me and walked into the hallway. He looped his thumbs inside the waistband of his cheap black pants and turned to stare at Sookie’s body a little longer. He shook his head and licked his lips before he spoke again. “You’re coming downtown with me.”

I put her hands on her hips. “You have no authority to take me downtown!”

At that moment, Sookie returned, scaring the shit out of Andy. “Sookie, please go get dressed.”

I was thoroughly enjoying the fear on his face and had no interest in leaving to get dressed. Sookie contorted my face into a sneer of disgust and nodded towards Andy. I gave in and walked down the hall. I could feel Andy’s eyes on me the entire time. He made me feel dirty. I was glad to pull a pair of jeans and a t-shirt over the bikini, which I stubbornly refused to remove, since I was still holding onto the hope that Sookie and I might have a chance to get back to sharing a moment I so desperately wanted to continue. It seemed like Sookie wanted it too…although she had been embarrassed by my body’s reaction for some reason. Maybe she didn’t want it. Maybe she was just hungry.

When I came back into the hallway, Andy was practically begging Sookie to come with him. He hadn’t given me an option! Why was he treating her so differently, especially when he wanted my help!

Sookie spoke up about hearing Eggs confess, which immediately piqued Andy’s interest. Couldn’t she just give him a statement here and be done with it? I still didn’t understand why we would have to go down to the station.

Andy pushed one too many buttons when he whined about needing my help, and then turned around and threatened to force me to go with him. An insult was on the tip of her tongue when Sookie agreed to go with him.

I couldn’t tell who I was angrier with, Sookie or Andy. I threw the ‘vette into gear surprising Sookie. She assured me that I she would take care of everything, and that we were needed to help her friend. Again.

*******

I couldn’t suppress a smile when I watched Sookie use my power to get what she wanted. She wasn’t ashamed of it, and focused her attention on the jail cells where the humans from the party were being held. Only Sookie spoke, but the look on my face told me that she had heard enough to know what to do next. Before I knew it, we were sitting in a room with the man named Eggs. As much as I enjoyed eggs, I didn’t care for him. What kind of a name was that for a person anyway? Sookie started talking, and before too much longer, Eggs was confessing to witnessing a murder in gruesome detail. It looked like Sookie might throw up. She pushed away from the table and left the room. I followed her.

Andy passed us, smiling stupidly while he went in to question Eggs.

“Why do you care?” I asked. What I really should have asked is why she didn’t take matters into her own hands…well, into my hands. She has the strength to end them all right now, and yet she does nothing.

Sookie turned to look at me, bloody tears filling my eyes. “Because he was my friend. They need to be punished for what they did.”

I was struggling to understand her reaction. She wanted to bring justice to a handful of drunk, malicious humans, but didn’t want them dead. It was so different than the system of justice that I normally lived by. I could see the determination on my face and it was in that moment that I admired her more than ever before. Besides being hard working, honest, friendly, and tolerant, Sookie was also kind.

Andy took us in, one at a time to give our statements about what happened the night of the sex party. It wasn’t hard to give a cohesive story, since Eggs had been kind enough to recap that night too.

As I drove home, I glanced at Sookie and saw her emotions play across my face. She looked sad and tired, but above all else, she looked satisfied.

“You’re a nice person,” I told her once we were inside her house.

She stared at me and furrowed my forehead. “Anyone would do that for their friend.”

“No they wouldn’t,” I retorted. I had planned saying more. Telling her that she was kind and compassionate, and that she was a rarity…but I couldn’t form the words. A pain deep in her abdomen stopped me. It felt like someone had poked me with a hot needle just above her pubic bone, slightly to the left. What in the hell was that? “Ah!”

“What? Eric? Are you alright?” Sookie asked, bending over to look at her face.

“No!” I shouted. “Does it look like I’m alright?” There it was again! The pain. I clutched her side and took a deep breath.

Sookie shook my head and sighed. “I’m so sorry, Eric. I should have warned you!”

“Warned me about what?” I gasped, waiting for the pain to subside.

“My period should have started some time this week. I mean your period.” My voice cracked and I looked up and found her trying to hold back a laugh.

“This is not fucking funny!” I wanted to punch her in the face, but couldn’t bring myself to let go of her side.

Sookie cleared my throat and looked at me solemnly. “Sorry. It’s not funny.” The look on my face changed. The blue of my eyes disappeared completely, engulfed by my pupils. “Oh god, Eric. I have to leave.” She paused and inhaled. “I don’t want to leave. I want to eat you.” Sookie slapped one of my hands over my mouth. “I can’t believe I just said that!” She turned my head away, hiding her embarrassment. “You don’t have much time.” She was lisping slightly, having a difficult time speaking around my descended fangs.

“What do I do?” I asked in a panic, feeling something slippery inside me moving.

Sookie disappeared. I could hear a clatter in the bathroom, so I walked down the hall and found her digging through the cupboard under the sink. She handed me several boxes. The first one was filled with narrow wrappers. They spilled onto the floor, where she fell to my knees, picking them up in a hurry. The second box had squares wrapped in green plastic. They looked like little gifts. I pulled one out, unwrapping the green present, revealing a rectangle of white plasticized material.

“What’s this?” I asked, pulling the thick white rectangle off of the green wrapper. It stuck to her finger.

“It’s a pad,” she said looking up at me from the floor. My eyes were focused on her crotch. She thrust a handful of narrow wrappers into her hands. “These are tampons. I’m not sure what you’ll be most comfortable using…” she trailed off and licked my lips.

“How am I supposed to be comfortable using any of these?” I stared at the packages and felt overwhelmed all of a sudden. “You have to help me.”

“I can’t,” Sookie ground out. “I need to leave. Now. Rescind my invitation.”

“You said that wouldn’t work!”

“It’s worth a shot! I have to leave.” She stared down at her crotch again. “But I don’t want to leave.”

“So don’t…” I said, lifting her eyebrow suggestively. My proposition was cut short by another pain stabbing into her belly. “Fuck! What is that?”

“Cramps?” Sookie shrugged. “Take these, but not more than what’s recommended.” She pushed a bottle of pills into her already full hands. “Baths also help with the pain…mm, maybe you should take one now…” She smacked my face and shook my head. “Eric, rescind my invitation. I can’t hold out much longer! I don’t want to hurt you. I can’t control this hunger…” My voice was filled with worry, combined with a soft growl.

“Fine! I rescind your invitation!” I shouted.

My body curled, bending in half, and flew through the house until she was standing on the front porch. I followed her and stood on the other side of the door, still holding boxes of feminine hygiene products and pain relievers.

Sookie pushed against the invisible barrier that separated us. “Don’t come out here!” she warned as she tried to touch me.

“Sookie! How am I supposed to figure this out?” I felt like crying.

“There is a book, all about growing up, on the bookshelf in my old bedroom, the one where the hidey hole is. There are also instructions, tucked inside the boxes of the feminine hygiene products. You’ll have to learn just like every other woman does…on her own. Follow the instructions though, or you’ll get sick. Oh god, I have to go. The smell is making me crazy!” She tried to touch me again and growled in frustration when she couldn’t. “Give me the key to your house. I need to stay there for a few days. I can’t trust myself around you! How do you deal with this?”

I shrugged. “I guess I got used to it.” I dropped the pile of supplies in her arms and pulled my key ring out of her pocket. I separated the keys, keeping the keys to the car and tucking them back into her pocket. I tossed the house keys out the open door. Sookie caught them easily and gave me one last hungry look before shooting into the air.

I closed the door and bent over to pick up the boxes on the floor when I felt a warm wet gush between her legs. Fuck my life.

I ran to the bathroom and stripped out of her jeans and bikini bottoms as quickly as I could, leaving a smear of blood down the inside of her leg. “Ugh! It’s everywhere!” I complained out loud to no one.

It took me an hour and two trips to the shower before I finally gave up on using tampons and strapped a huge pad to the inside of a pair of her panties. The garbage can was filled with wrappers and wads of toilet paper covered in blood. How did women deal with this every month? It’s so messy! I soaked her bikini in the sink and scrubbed it with a bar of soap trying to get the bloodstains out. So much for my vow not to do laundry!

I flopped down on her couch and turned on the television. A distraction was more than welcome. A greeting card commercial came on and ten seconds in, I started crying uncontrollably. It brought back memories of my mother, and made me miss her more than I had in centuries. If only I could tell my mother how much I loved her! What in the hell was wrong with me? Was my emotional outburst caused by Sookie’s hormones, or did I really miss my mother this much? Whatever the cause, it was unsettling.

Well that hadn’t been a good distraction. Exhausted, I finally fell asleep.

*******

As soon as I woke up that afternoon, I was reminded that Sookie’s body needed immediate attention. I ran to the bathroom, and jumped into the shower. This was ridiculous! How long did this last? I needed to read that book!

I was distracted by my hunger, which overwhelmed everything else. I opened the cupboards in the kitchen and rifled around until I found a container filled with chocolate candies. I had the sudden urge to eat the entire container. It was worse when I opened it and inhaled the sweet scent. Before I even thought about it, I had eaten three squares of chocolate. My hunger was not sated, so I ate a fourth piece.

While I was brewing a pot of coffee, I felt her stomach churn a little. Eating a pile of chocolate might not have been a good idea. While I was cooking eggs and toasting bread, I popped open the pickle jar and helped myself. It was oddly satisfying.

I sipped my coffee and realized something was missing. Something sweet. Chocolate. Coffee would be better with chocolate, right? I unwrapped two more squares and plopped them into my cup, stirring until the solid chunks turned into a sweet slurry in the bottom of my cup. I drank the coffee quickly, in an attempt to get to the bottom.

By the time I had finished eating my eggs and toast, I felt sick. Her stomach was distended a little and it ached. I needed to lie down. I opened the blinds in her old bedroom and curled up on her tiny bed, enjoying the bright sunshine from afar while I clutched her body and tried not to throw up. This was torture! Her body was craving things that made her sick. How did that make any sense?

As I waited out the next few hours, I found the book she had mentioned. It was old and worn, but had basic illustrations that would be very helpful. I read, holding as still as possible, hoping that the stomachache would go away. It was made worse by the occasional reoccurrence of sidesplitting pain I had experienced yesterday. Where had I put that bottle of pills?

I discovered after reading some of the chapters that it is not uncommon for girls to feel frustrated by their changing bodies. I actually felt better knowing I wasn’t alone! I also learned that it was her uterus contracting that was causing the pain, and that it is a totally normal part of menstruation. The diagram that showed how to insert a tampon was less than helpful, but the step-by-step instructions were detailed enough that I thought I’d give it a shot again.

I got out of bed, holding the page in the book and hobbling to the bathroom. Ah! That’s where I put down the bottle of pain medicine! I swallowed two immediately and noted that I could take two more in six hours. The bottle claimed it would help with bloating, discomfort, and pain. Sounded like a winning combination. I wondered if I could chew them to make them work faster. I also wondered if I could talk Sookie into giving me some of my blood to help with the pain…

I propped the book on the sink, lifted her foot onto the lid of the toilet, and unwrapped a tampon. I was determined to make this work. I was not pleased by the smear of crusted blood that the pads left all over her body. I read the instructions out loud as I maneuvered the piece of plastic inside her body. It felt odd, but it seemed to work. I read the instructions on the package of tampons. Fuck me. I had to do this every six to eight hours.

I took another shower, and moved carefully, trying not to knock the tampon out of place. It was hard to believe that it just stayed there, all by itself. As I was getting dressed, her stomach growled. I was hungry…again.

I grabbed my cell phone, and as I watched the sun set from the kitchen, I dialed Pam. I had just taken a bite of bread when Pam picked up. “Pam,” I said with a mouth full.

“Eric,” she said with a yawn.

“Sookie is at my house for a few days. I want you to look after her.”

“I thought you were like two peas in a pod…why aren’t you together?”

“I started my period and she couldn’t control my hunger,” I answered, waiting for her to laugh.

Pam snorted and then asked, “Can I come over?”

“No! I’m having a hard enough time as it is! Do you know how frustrating it is to learn how to insert a tampon?”

“No, I can’t say that I do. They were invented after my time,” Pam yawned again.

“Take my word for it. They’re fucking awful…but they beat those horrid pads any day of the week!”

“Stop being so whiney! Just be glad that you’re not experiencing this a hundred years ago. You think those pads are horrid? You should try using torn up fabric wadded up in your underthings. Talk about fucking awful!”

I sighed. I should have known Pam wouldn’t be sympathetic. “About Sookie. Will you please go get her, take her to Fangtasia, and put her to work? She needs a distraction.”

Pam laughed. “You don’t like the idea of her in your house alone, do you?”

“No.” How well she knew me.

“Are you sure you don’t want some company?” Pam’s voice was sweet.

“I’m sure. Just take care of Sookie.” I hung up the phone.

I went back into her old bedroom, returning the growing up book to the shelf. On the shelf above it, I found several volumes of notebooks, all with different colored bindings, and all unmarked. I pulled the one farthest to the left off the shelf and opened it. It was filled with a girl’s handwriting. After reading a few scrawling lines, I realized it was her diary. She started every passage with her age. She was twelve in this one. I closed it. Should I be reading these?

Her hand moved without giving me a chance to think, grabbing the next one. One after another, I opened her journals. They were organized chronologically. I rushed to the last one. She no longer began entries with a declaration of her age, but they were dated. Her handwriting had improved significantly, and her thoughts were more cohesive. The first entry was a complaint about how boring her life was. Everything she wrote boiled down to working, eating and sleeping. She wanted more. She mentioned her brother, Sam and her grandmother occasionally, but most of it was the ramblings of someone who didn’t have anyone to talk to. She was venting about work, about the things she heard, and things that she wanted to do.

Her fingers moved along the pages as I read. Suddenly they stopped. I found the night she met Bill. She was exhilarated. I felt something nagging at me. Telling me to close the book. These were her private words, and I didn’t belong here, did I? I couldn’t bring myself to stop. Reading her intimate account of the first night they had sex was too much, and before I skimmed ahead, I understood that he had been her first. That bastard! He lied to her from the beginning, and sadly, she had believed him.

I was just about to close the book when I saw my name. I backtracked and started from the beginning of the entry. Bill was bringing her to Fangtasia so she could ask about her friend from work. Bill thought she was stupid for wanting to know, but she felt like it was the only option. She had a lot to say about me.

I read her words out loud. ‘Eric…I have never met such a handsome man, and was ashamed to feel such an intense attraction to him. It was obvious that Bill did not like him, and I could understand why. Why would anyone choose Bill when someone like Eric existed? I still can’t get the sound of his laugh and the sight of his beautiful lips out of my mind. Why did vampires have to be so darn attractive?’ I couldn’t help smiling at the thought of her being so taken with me. It was satisfying to hear her confess how she felt about me.

I scanned ahead a few weeks. ‘I can’t stop thinking about him. Bill comes and goes as he pleases, and I can’t help but wonder what it would be like to be with Eric.’

‘Bill and I are headed to Dallas today. It might be good to have a break from being so close to Shreveport.’

She wrote several more pages about being excited to travel and about her hopes that she would be safe while she was with Bill, and then, I was at the last page of the journal. There had to be more. I scanned the bookshelf and didn’t find anything. I realized that I might have better luck in the bedroom where she sleeps now.

I walked down the hall and into her bedroom. I sat on her bed and scanned the room. I scanned the shelf of books under her nightstand, and shook her head. They were all romance and mystery novels. I slid her hand under the shelf and recoiled when I snagged a pile of dust. I opened the drawer, and there it was: a red journal, the same size and shape as the others. A pen was wedged between the pages, marking where she had stopped writing, but I started at the beginning.

The first entry was written the day after she got home from Dallas. ‘Why was he there? At the party, when people were screaming all around us, the only thing I could think of was getting Eric on top of me again. And where was Bill? Not protecting me, that’s for sure. Eric called me his darling, and he had kissed me. Oh god, what a kiss. I wonder what he would think if he knew I kept the bullet?’

She kept the bullet that she sucked out of my shoulder? Why had she kept it?

I flipped through the pages until I found my name again. ‘Eric saved me again, this time for the poison from that maenad creature in the woods. Even with my fuzzy mind, I knew that it was him that made my pain go away. When I woke up I wanted to stay. How am I going to tell Bill?’

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On to Switched Ch 13: Memento